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Inaugural Address
Daniel W. Rahn, MD
April 26, 2002
Lieutenant Governor Taylor, Senator Walker, Representative Connell, Regent Shelnut, Regent Leebern, Chancellor Meredith, Mayor Young, distinguished alumni, faculty, staff, students, delegates, family, and friends ... I offer my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you for gathering today to celebrate the inauguration of the seventh President of the Medical College of Georgia. I hesitate to say "MY" inauguration because I feel that this day belongs to all of us. As many of you have heard me say before, I believe this institution works because we—the faculty, staff, students, administrators, and the community—are functioning in support of a greater purpose.
An inauguration marks a new beginning for a college or university. A new leader is formally presented to the campus and the community and with that comes a number of wonderful residual benefits—renewed focus on institutional purpose, heightened energy and enthusiasm, a shared commitment to advance the institution. To become better than what we are.
The installation of a new president also holds the promise of a honeymoon period—a short span of time during which a leader can count on the good wishes of the campus, the Board, and the community at large. Meaningful work occurs without public displays of contention. Stumbles are politely overlooked. Missteps are gently corrected. I have enjoyed this time immensely but, having just been through my first legislative session as President of this institution, I can assure you that the honeymoon is definitely over.
I stand before you this afternoon—surrounded by this pageantry, by the colorful academic regalia—and I am filled with humility, gratitude, and a tremendous sense of responsibility. And, as much as I would like to remove the focus on me from this event, I am the guy wearing the necklace! This inauguration is an exceptionally significant personal event for me and my family. Please allow me a few moments to share my appreciation.
Thanks to former Chancellor Portch and the University System of Georgia Board of Regents for providing this humbling opportunity of a lifetime. It is truly an honor to stand at the helm of Georgia’s only public health sciences university. And thanks to Chancellor Meredith for his interest in, enthusiasm for, and understanding of the complex work we do here at the Medical College of Georgia.
Thanks to my friend and mentor, Dr. Allen Steere—the rheumatologist who discovered Lyme disease—to Dr. John Hardin—who convinced me to come to MCG in 1991—and to my good friend Frank Page from whom I learned the importance of being spiritually grounded. Thanks to Yale University where I received my undergraduate and medical education. It is there that I learned the importance of an abiding commitment to excellence and to lifelong learning. And thanks to the good people of Guilford, Connecticut—the town in which I spent eight years in private practice. As a young physician in Guilford, I learned that medical knowledge and caring are equally important. There I learned about the sanctity of the relationship between health care professionals and their patients.
The last ten and a half years of my professional journey have been spent here at MCG, here in Augusta. My colleagues, my patients, my students, my friends, my neighbors—I thank all of you for your support and encouragement.
I also thank my family—my mother, who traveled from our hometown of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, to be here today. My sister, Jenny. My big brother, Ned. Siblings have a way of keeping you grounded. And most of all—my thanks to my wife, my life partner, Lana, and our children—Jason, Becky, and Zack. The transition from family to MCG’s first family—if you will—has been challenging for all us. I couldn’t have a more loving, more encouraging personal support system.
I assumed the presidency of the Medical College of Georgia last June, nearly a year ago. I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I would say today. And it is quite simple, really—this business we’re in requires a commitment to knowledge and service. It requires a heart for caring.
Our mission—the fundamental, core function that drives all we do—is to improve health and reduce the burden of illness in society. We teach. We discover. We care. While our purpose has not changed over MCG’s 174 year history, the stage on which we serve society has been significantly altered.
When the Medical Academy of Georgia was formed in 1828, Henry Gray had not yet created his Anatomy of the Human Body. Florence Nightingale was eight—still 26 years from revolutionizing nursing through her service during the Crimean War. Dentists used drills powered by twisted catgut or coiled wire springs to remove decay from teeth.
When our founding fathers—Dr. Milton Antony and Dr. Joseph Adams Eve—began training physicians in two borrowed rooms of the City Hospital, medicine was not the enlightened profession it is today. In 1828, surgical procedures were performed without anesthesia. The first use of ether during surgery is credited to Dr. Crawford Williamson Long—a Georgia native—in 1842. And antibiotics—they, of course, were unheard of for a full century after MCG’s founding—until Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1929.
During the nineteenth century, the practice of heroic medicine—using bleeding, blistering, and other unsavory approaches to purge the body of disease—was commonplace. Patent medicine—the use of questionable and usually highly alcoholic tinctures and potions to cure illness—abounded. The River Swamp Chill and Fever Cure was a popular locally-produced remedy for yellow fever and malaria, which were believed to be caused by breathing the mist that rose from the Savannah River each morning.
I’ve heard nineteenth century medicine described as equal parts quackery and science. But the nineteenth century also was a period of rapid change in medicine. A period that spawned many of the methods and ideas that form the basis of modern clinical medicine—the germ theory of disease, use of medical imaging and local anesthesia, the principles of hygiene. And it was Gregor Mendel’s mid-19th-century experiments with peas that demonstrated physical traits pass from one generation to the next—the foundation of today’s extraordinary work in genetics and molecular biology.
Two recent events stirred enormous press interest as examples of the incredible advances of the genetic revolution. In 1997, Dolly—the first mammal to be cloned from an adult—was introduced to the world. And, in 2000, the much anticipated sequencing of the human genome was completed.
On the national stage, politicians, religious leaders, ethicists, and scientists debate genetic research. While this debate rages, as it should, researchers quietly work at their benches, using molecular genetic techniques to manipulate cells, making small, incremental discoveries that broaden our understanding of human biology and disease processes.
Discoveries in the fields of stem cell biology, immunogenetics, genomics, and proteomics—words not found in dictionaries of a decade ago and not even in my spell checker now—are paving the way for us to actually intervene in disease processes in fundamental ways that were unimaginable a few years ago. The challenges are formidable and the possibilities are mind-boggling. We are on the verge of a virtual revolution in biomedical science, one which may well transform our approach to human health and disease.
But equally formidable are the economic and ethical challenges associated with these new tools and scientific breakthroughs. As we work to advance our knowledge of the biomedical sciences, we must work simultaneously to assure that we provide the highest quality health care to everyone—to assure that non-scientific barriers do not result in health care disparities. We also must assure that our biotechnical capabilities do not overwhelm our ethical standards.
During the past quarter century, we have witnessed a gradual transition in the pattern of health—a shift from the treatment of acute problems to the management of chronic diseases. Less than 80 years ago, President Coolidge lost his son to septic poisoning, the result of a blister he developed while playing tennis on the White House lawn. Life expectancy at birth was just 56.4 years.
Today, the average American lives more than 77 years; most are afflicted with a chronic disease during that lifetime. Diabetes. Cardiovascular disease. Alzheimer’s disease. Rheumatoid arthritis. Cancer. Illnesses that are prolonged; illnesses that are not resolved with a short course of treatment; illnesses that are rarely completely cured. Treatment becomes ongoing management that requires collaboration among teams of health professionals. And this transfers more responsibility to the patient as a member of that team. Now, more than ever, we are in this together—and for the long haul. That is why we, as practitioners, must have a heart for caring.
We work with patients over long periods of time to minimize the adverse effects of debilitating illness. We work with patients who, thanks to the development of emergency medicine, survive traumatic accidents and regain maximum mobility and functionality but only through lengthy therapeutic treatments. Often—we alleviate suffering. Occasionally—we cure. But always—we care.
We are surrounded by amazingly sophisticated modalities for medical care and treatment. With the gamma knife, for example, we are able to perform brain surgery without ever opening the skull. But we continue to struggle to deliver dental care to all children, to meet the health care needs of the uninsured, to eliminate long-standing and troubling disparities in the health status of racial and ethnic minorities.
Last month, the Institute of Medicine, the medical branch of the National Academy of Sciences, released an extensive analysis of racial and ethnic disparities in health care in the United States. This monograph, entitled Unequal Treatment, presents in exhaustive detail what we already knew from many individual studies—that racially-determined disparities in health status and health care are pervasive.
How far have we come as a scientific and medical community if African Americans are less likely to receive appropriate care for heart disease or recommended cancer screening when compared to their white counterparts? If half the children born to low-income families do not receive appropriate dental care?
African Americans have worse health status when compared to their white counterparts in the areas of maternal and child health, cardiovascular care, treatment of diabetes and kidney disease, use of analgesics, cancer diagnostic tests, emergency service treatment, mental health services, and on and on. These disparities persist even after controlling for socioeconomic factors.
We know that the interplay of genetics, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geography, and health behaviors all contribute to health status, health care access, and health care quality. This is a complex issue—a troubling issue—that defies a single, simple solution. But I can assure you—part of the solution is to increase the number of under represented minority health professionals. Our goal must be the complete elimination of health disparities. MCG will do everything possible as a public institution to erase these disparities in Georgia and will work with every partner in this endeavor.
As practitioners, we do not treat problems. We treat people. And that requires us to build relationships with our patients. As educators, we must instill this value of caring in the students who trust us to guide and instruct them. We have a responsibility to our students to provide them with the knowledge and skills they require to function at the top of their chosen fields. But we also must plant the seeds of lifelong learning and social responsibility so that they remain there and serve society in a manner that is worthy of the trust placed in us and in them.
We must educate professionals who advance biomedical science and clinical care through their knowledge and skills. But we must also mentor and mold people who comfort and serve other people. Physicians, nurses, dentists, and allied health professionals who recognize and respond to the health care needs of everyone in society, including the marginalized, the elderly, and the poor.
As leaders of the medical professions, we must work with professional societies and public policymakers to aggressively address issues that impact the health of the public we serve. Yes, we have a responsibility to advance science, to advance medicine, to advance clinical care. But we also have a responsibility to not leave anyone behind.
Next month, MCG will graduate 700 new health professionals and biomedical scientists. These newly minted practitioners and investigators will have the knowledge and skills to make major contributions to society. And if the past predicts the future, more than 65 percent will remain in this state—directly contributing to improved health status for all Georgians.
I know our students—our junior colleagues—will leave this institution as highly trained professionals but also with a commitment to serve society. We see their empathy, their passion for service, in the initiatives they have undertaken during their years of study.
Our students—across all schools—have sponsored and participated in service projects to address the health needs of migrant workers, of children in low socioeconomic neighborhoods, of citizens in rural areas. For the past ten years, Students for Intercultural Medicine has provided humanitarian efforts abroad—providing basic medical supplies and services to citizens in need. This year, students formed a campuswide Committee for Community Service—a way to unify the entire student body through organized volunteerism. In May, three dental students will cycle 100 miles up Mt. Mitchell—11,000 vertical feet of climb—to raise funds for student scholarships. And just this week, ten of our freshman medical students conducted a bone marrow and stem cell drive to connect patients with possible donors. Hearts for caring—we’re very proud of all of them.
As many great philosophers and poets have noted, nothing endures but change. It is life’s only constant. New threats to the health of the public are emerging, but new threats have always emerged. Some—infectious diseases thought to be relics of the past—are now on the front page as tools of terrorists.
The health professions are changing, but they too have always been changing. MCG is changing—new relationships, new buildings on the horizon, new faculty being recruited, new president. Since I assumed this office in June, we’ve appointed three new deans and 114 new faculty. And, through the generous support of the Georgia state government and the people of this state, we have acquired more than $40 million in funding for capital projects such as our cancer research facility and the addition to the interdisciplinary research building.
We completed a strategic planning process that resulted in 30 high level strategic priorities for the institution. We’ve also completed a master facilities planning process that will guide the growth and development of our campus over the next ten years. This process embraced our current building projects—the cancer and interdisciplinary research buildings, the allied health and nursing educational building, and the wellness center—but also mapped out a bold and attractive plan for campus development. We envision creating an enhanced campus atmosphere by increasing green space and minimizing surface parking. We intend to enhance our connection to the community through improved campus edges, create a biotechnology research park through collaboration with the Georgia Medical Center Authority, and heighten campus accessibility to downtown Augusta.
Clearly, we are advancing the mission of this institution. Realizing our full potential—that is, for MCG to contribute what it is capable of contributing to Georgia—will require broad collaboration and new kinds of partnerships that cross institutional lines and involve public/private partnerships. Collaboration across schools and departments. Collaboration with our partners in the MCG Health System and the University System of Georgia. And, collaboration with our friends and colleagues in the Augusta community as we develop creative partnerships designed to translate medical advances into improved health and economic development. MCG stands at the epicenter of an incredible amount of change, but MCG does not stand alone.
This institution—indeed any complex organizational structure—will always be in a state of transition. We will always strive to become better than what we are. But to be a superior health sciences university, one thing must never change. We must stay true to our core purpose. We must stay true to our value to society—to teach, to discover, to care.
We have embraced our mission of improving health and reducing the burden of illness in society. We have embraced our vision of becoming one of the nation’s premier health sciences universities. And we have embraced our shared values of leadership, social responsibility, compassion, diversity, professionalism, and excellence. Now...let us embrace our future.
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